Page 16 of The Drop

“I don’t want to talk to you for a long time, Mom,” I say quietly, taking a deep breath in. “You and Josh betrayed my trust, and I need time to myself for a while.”

“Do you know how embarrassing this will look to everyone?” she scoffs, and that’s my sign to hang up.

The screen goes black, and I put it down and sigh. Cami pulls me into a hug, and I lean my head on her shoulder, and we don’t speak. This isn’t the first time my mom’s hurt me.I’m a veteran of dealing with the consequences of her actions. Someone’s got to, since she never does.

Later, I’m lying on the sofa with my legs hanging over the armrest in running shorts and a sweatshirt borrowed from Cami.

I’m trying to push myself to get up and run, but I just feel so defeated and sad. Usually, an exercise session would fix me, but the thought of leaving the apartment sets my anxiety off. I had even tried to do some basic yoga moves, but just gave up after I couldn’t get into the right mindset.

Cami headed out to catch up with the skating team, but promised she wouldn’t be too long. I told her it didn’t matter, and I was fine. But I’m not fine as my head falls back against the sofa seat.

I’m jolted out of my mini meltdown when there is a knock at the door, and I get up reluctantly, not even wanting to speak to anyone.

As I swing the door open, I face the four boys in the apartment next door.

“Hey.” Grant smiles, and the boys wave behind him.

“Er, hey.” I wave back awkwardly. “Cami’s not here.”

“We know; we wanted to see if you wanted to go for a run, " Gunnar says, smiling.

I groan, thinking Cami texted them. “You don’t have to take me on a pity run. I’m sorry if Cami threatened you to come check on me.” I sigh, feeling embarrassed and hopping from one foot to the other.

“Cami didn’t threaten us.” Bear laughs. “We saw her leave, and she said you hadn’t moved off the sofa all day!”

“You said earlier you wanted to go for a run.” Grant rubs the back of his neck. “So, I suggested a run to these guys and thought we would see if you were still up for it.”

I blink at them slowly; they want to go for a run with me, not because Cami asked them, but because they want to. “Um, I might be kind of slow for you guys,”

“No problem. Adam is slow, so we normally have to lower our pace for him.” Gunnar winks as I grab my keys and lock the door, tucking them in my bra. Grant catches me doing it and raises his eyebrows at me while Adam defends his speed, and I glare at him as we descend the stairs.

“How far are we going?” I ask as we start a slow jog.

“Eh, however far it takes to clear our minds.” Grant shrugs at me.

“I didn’t think you had anything in there to clear out.” I snort, running ahead to catch up with Bear, leaving him behind me as the boys laugh and start hounding him about the joke.

As I listen to the guys talking about random things related to hockey or class, I don’t feel like I need to get involved or pretend to be interested. My chest feels a little lighter.

Chapter Eight

Grant

Our first game is a friendly at home, but it’s against our biggest rivals, so I know it’ll be anything but pleasant.

I’m tugging my Huntington Wolves jersey on over my pads and putting my headphones back in my ears, trying to get focused. It’s my first game as captain, and the nerves are there.

I’ve already moved around the benches of our dressing room encouraging the team, especially the rookies, even though we mostly face each other, I take time with each person to make sure they’re getting in the zone, and now I’m trying to remember everyone’s strengths, and weaknesses so we might use them to our advantage. While playing with my phone, leaning back against my green and black locker, I look back at the text Brooke sent, wishing me luck.

It’s her first-ever hockey game, and we’ve all been coaching her on how it works, but she’s struggling with it a little. Cami promised a rinkside crash course during the game.

She came running over to our apartment when she opened the jersey I got her as a moving-in present, and then fell over laughing when Bear and Adam tackled me, realising I hadput my name and number on the back, which she hadn’t noticed until she showed it off.

I overheard her say to Cami that she needed to get a jersey for the game, and I knew she would wear someone's, and there was no other option but for it to be mine. I started to overthink giving it to her, but she’s my friend. She would want to support me and wear my jersey just like Cami wears Bear's. Because she refuses to wear Adam’s number “69” and Gunnar's jersey is, of course, off limits to anyone who isn’t Sasha.

In the last two weeks since Brooke entered, we've practically merged our apartments, as we are all hanging out so much. I’ve gone running with her twice a week, sometimes with the guys, sometimes alone, but she says it helps her anxiety, so I’m all for making sure she keeps going.

Between classes starting up and getting ready for the season, I haven’t had the time to hook up with anyone. It’s a little weird for me, but I’m putting it down to the new captain status and the pressure; we’ve got some parties coming up, so I'm sure that will change soon.

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